WESMAR
How WESMAR Developed Its Next-Gen Smart Sonar Product in Just 5 Months
"Both the NEPI software and Numurus team have gone above and beyond our expectations, and we are thrilled to have them as a partner as we look to apply NEPI across our entire product line." ROGER FELLOWS | PRESIDENT, INNOV8V MARINE GROUP
THE PROJECT
WESMAR, a leading provider of commercial fishing sensors and propulsion products, launched an internal development effort to modernize its product with emerging industrial automation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The vision for all their sensing and propulsion products was to create a common interface and processing platform that supported advanced features such as plug-and-play camera drivers, 3D data visualization, real-time AI-driven analytics, modern distributed user interfaces, and cloud-based fleet management portals.
THE CHALLENGE
WESMAR faced major challenges to achieve the product vision provided by management. Their small engineering group was already stretched thin with ongoing manufacturing support and part obsolescence issues for their current products. The in-house team's experience lacked several key technical areas such as GPU operating systems, AI, user interface design, and cloud-based IoT solutions. With a limited budget, WESMAR didn't want to hire more engineers to fill all the required technical gaps. Additionally, WESMAR only had 6 months to go from a concept to a production-ready solution to meet customer requirements.
THE SOLUTION
After surveying the market for technologies that would accelerate their product modernization efforts and reduce their need to hire technical experience, WESMAR ultimately turned to Numurus for help. Numurus' AI and automation design services team worked closely with the WESMAR product team to quickly deliver a turnkey edge-compute hardware solution preinstalled with Numurus' NEPI AI and automation software, customized for their product vision. This enabled WESMAR to access middleware software supporting plug-and-play sonar and camera sensor interfaces, AI management tools, network-based remote user interfaces, and more. WESMAR also utilized Numurus' NEPI professional services team specialized in embedded GPU hardware and software.
THE PROCESS
Once WESMAR decided to move forward with NEPI, Numurus' professional services team established and hosted weekly project meetings with WESMAR's engineering, production, sales, and marketing teams to ensure all stakeholders were involved. The Numurus development team provided project management and design services through all stages of the project including:
- Solution Requirements Development
- Budget and Schedule Development
- Sensor Driver and User Interface Customization
- Hardware Prototype Design, Build, and Testing
THE RESULTS
Within 5 months of starting their NEPI-enabled sonar modernization project with Numurus' support, WESMAR successfully demonstrated its next-generation smart sonar product to customers, with production systems ready-to-ship.
THE FUTURE
Numurus' NEPI software allowed WESMAR to quickly develop and launch the first version of their smart sonar product concept. NEPI is also providing software hooks for future capabilities, including camera integration, real-time AI-based analytics, 3D visualization solutions, and remote IoT-based fleet monitoring, which will be rolled out over the next year through regular software updates. WESMAR plans to migrate NEPI smart system software across their entire line of sensing and propulsion products.